Telanadas

1

"This is ridiculous!" Naruto complains, his shout almost lost in the howling wind. "I've never heard of any village out this way, let alone a temple—it's not even on a proper map!"

Sasuke affords his travelling companion a scant glance, although he is of a similar mind.

The path before them is daunting, so windswept and snowy that it is almost impossible to see two feet in front of their faces. Even Sasuke, whose eyes are far better than anyone else's, has difficulty discerning where white ground ends and sky begins.

"We should stop to rest," Kakashi calls out at the leader of their procession. "This whole pursuit will be a waste if we lose any important bits to frostbite!"

Up ahead, the short, hooded figure spearheading their frigid ascent pauses and turns around. Thick strands of rosy hair whip around her face, a stark contrast to their bleak surroundings, and almost as jarring as her green eyes. Sasuke never would have expected to see eyes the colour of feladara in a Child of the Stone.

He watches her face as she weighs the mage's words, biting her bottom lip in contemplation. Coupled with her small stature, the gesture would fool a stranger into thinking her frail, but he has learned not to take her soft features at face value. In the weeks since meeting her, he has seen her wrestle darkspawn and kill an ogre with nothing but an axe and her fist. The sight reminds him of the stories his people tell of the great elven general Tsunade, who wielded the enchanted blade of Katsuyu during the Battle of Forlorn Falls.

Not that he will ever tell a dwarf that.

Sakura is more of a strategic thinker than her character would suggest—economic but also as opportunistic as a wolf. Though her first instinct is to help the less-fortunate, she is not above taking jobs for monetary gain. And yet, somehow those mercenary chores always yield some bounty vital to their overall objectives.

It is an odd talent of hers, and Sasuke is not sure if it makes him more unnerved by her or more curious. This uncertainty bothers him.

Sakura observes them all now, the slight narrowing of her eyes a tell Sasuke identifies as calculation. She is gauging their current fitness and comparing that to what she knows of their abilities. Whenever Sasuke feels those eyes, he has the disconcerting presentment she sees him like a playing card to sacrifice in a game of Wicked Grace.

"No, let's keep going," she decides after a beat. There is enough reluctance in her voice to suggest she would like to be out of the gale just as much as he, but she remains otherwise resolved. "There's still an hour left of daylight, such as it is. I want to get over that bluff before the snow changes the landscape too much."

Naruto does not bother disguising his moan of dismay, but Sasuke smirks.

The woman is not soft. I will give her that.

As he continues the trek up the frozen, slippery incline of the northernmost Sanrō Mountain, he wonders if that is because she also has a death wish.

The life of a Grey Warden is blighted, Sasuke has heard. The whole Order must be cursed, considering their duty to defend the entire continent from the menace of the darkspawn. Raised among the Dalish, Sasuke was taught to distrust all but his own kind, yet the Keeper and the storytellers in his clan spoke of the Wardens with great respect. It is a fellowship where all are equal, no matter their origins, and whose members follow a worthy calling.

Based on the dangers they face every day he cannot argue that even the hardiest of his own people would have baulked at such a challenge. No elf would have accepted this quest in the first place.